Protect Us From Ourselves
by Aurelia Lothlorien
Summary: Repeated battles have left Kagome questioning her strength as a fighter, and whether she's holding back the group. When she seeks a way to strengthen herself, a history of her miko powers she could never have predicted arises. Can she handle the challenge


**Aurelia says: Disclaimer, yo. didn't own Inuyasha the last time, but still wishing I did.**

**Author notey thingamajig: **New story, 'the hell? That's what you may be thinking, but I liked it, and I thought I'd share my ideas. So read on, and do tell if you enjoy.

----------------------------------------

Chapter 1: Decisions

----------------------------------------

Kagome sighed as she stared at the brilliant sun that warmed the small clearing. Her feet dangled in the cool water of a nameless river, and her thoughts were lazily focused on her history of battles.

"Damnit."

She winced as she lay back onto the grass. The most recent battle had left her with a good many bruises, and she was getting tired of being sore. Naturally, Inuyasha had kept one eye on her during the entire battle, managing to whisk her out of fatal harm's way in the nick of time. So although she wasn't near death or anything quite so severe, she had taken her share of bumps.

_If only I wasn't so weak_.

Miroku and Sango were superbly skilled fighters, and watching them in action was almost close to a dance. They made a great team, relying on one another, and bouncing off each other's skills. Then there was Inuyasha- poetry and strength in motion. The man had more grace and brawn than, well, anyone she had ever known.

And all she had was stupid little second rate arrows that barely managed to reach her target, and only then if she was lucky. The best thing she'd managed to hit so far was the Shikon no Tama. She snorted. Even that, she had broken into thousands of little pieces.

Technically, she was on about the same level on Shippou.

"Mou..." she pouted, closing her eyes and throwing an arm over her face.

"Oi, come on you lazy girl, let's go."

Insert everyone's favorite hanyou to make things worse.

Kagome rolled her eyes and sat up, finding Inuyasha standing a few feet behind her. The girl from the future had asked for a little time alone to reflect, since the group had just finished a battle and they were taking some time to recover. Apparently, Kagome's quiet time was over.

"Inuyasha?"

The boy's ears perked up. "Hnn?"

The girl bit her lip and stared at her reflection in the water. _Great, let's do some personal reflection with the king of emotions, Inuyasha. Riiiiight. Oh well, at least he'll be honest._ "Do you think I'm weak?"

The hanyou snorted. _The hell? What is she talking about?_ "Keh. Of course you're weak, you're a damn human."

Kagome sighed again and shook her head. "That's not what I meant."

He sighed, and plopped down next to her. _Bitch is getting depressed. This is not what I need right now. _"Kagome, you haven't been trained to fight all your life. You come from a relaxed lifestyle with little to none life or death situations. You're a klutz and fall down all the damn time," here he laughed," but... you do what you can, right?"

"...Yeah. I guess."

"Plus, we'd all be fucked if we didn't have you to point us in the direction of the shards. Even if it was your stupidity that broke it in the first place."

The boy couldn't give a compliment without an insult to back it up if it killed him.

"Anyways," he stood up, yanking the back of her shirt up to bring her with him, "I'm starving. Enough of this contemplation bullshit, let's go hit Kaede up for some food."

"Alright." She grabbed her shoes and took one last look at the clearing before following the boy into the forest. _Do what you can... but there has to be more that I'm capable of!_

"Inuyasha, that rice ball was mineeeeeeeeee!"

"Shut up, runt."

"Kagomeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, tell him to give it to me."

Kagome massaged her temples as the rice ball in question quickly disappeared into the hanyou's mouth. Shippou immediately launched onto the dog eared boy's head and started chomping away in retaliation. _I can't take this right now. I'm stressed enough as it is, my entire body hurts, and I do not want a headache compounded on top of that._ "Guys, would you **shut up** for like two seconds?"

Shippou paused in mid attack at the girl's unnatural failure to rise to his defense. "Kay." He slid to the floor in a lump.

Miroku and Sango paused eating to stare at the girl.

The huntress, always observant, questioned first. "Kagome-chan, is something wrong?"

"No, no, I'm fine." _Augh, wrong move. _Kagome waved a hand to dismiss the group's sudden concern.

"Perhaps you are ill, Kagome-sama?" Miroku even looked a bit concerned.

"Keh. The bitch is just stupidly questioning her own worth."

_Thank you, Inuyasha._ Kagome bit back the sarcastic reply in her mind. "I'm fine you guys, I just have a small headache. "I'm going outside for a bit. I'll be back later."

As the girl exited the hut, the group exchanged glances. Curious eyes turned unknowingly on the hanyou, and Miroku and Sango shared an unspoken agreement.

When he next paused eating, Inuyasha could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. He jolted his gaze up to receive glares from both the exterminator and the monk. "What? I didn't do anything!"

Outside, Kagome silently stared up at the moon. She wasn't trying to impose her moodiness on everyone else, she was just tired of holding everyone back. They always had to protect _her._ Make sure that some stray youkai doesn't finish off poor Kagome. No Kagome-sama, stay on the sidelines, otherwise you'll be in danger.

She was tired of watching everyone fight _but_ her.

She was a _miko_, damnit! She had holy powers and was the reincarnation of Kikyo. The dead miko had been amazing, curing people, fighting every evil youkai in the vicinity with one arm tied behind her back. And here was little Kagome, a seventeen year old school girl who followed Inuyasha around, and was the new inept protector of the Shikon no Tama. It just didn't seem fair.

After close to two years of traveling, fighting, getting taunted and strung along by Naraku, and dealing with whatever her relationship was to Inuyasha, she was tired. Sick and tired of not being able to defend herself. She frowned, and with a new determination marched back into the hut.

She grabbed Inuyasha's sleeve and tugged the boy up. "Come on Inuyasha, I need your help."

"Whaaa- Hey wench, what are you doing!"

Miroku, Sango, Shippou and Kiara watched as the cursing hanyou was dragged out through the door.

"This should do." After pulling Inuyasha into the forest she had marched on, ignoring his questions in her quest to find a clearing. She had found the little field and stream from her earlier excursion, and now turned to face an extremely confused hanyou.

"Kagome, what the hell has gotten into you?"

_I hope he doesn't think I'm too insane. _"Inuyasha, I want you to teach me how to fight."

He sputtered for a few moments, and settled into an unbelieving pose. "You WHAT?"

Kagome grinned, her eyes alight with excitement at her new idea. "You've been fighting your whole life, right? So, I want you to teach me how. If Sango can do it, I can probably learn to at least defend myself."

Inuyasha broke off into peals of laughter. "Dear gods Kagome. Sango has been training forever, you can't just immediately teach that. I can't believe this!"

Kagome huffed and shot her hands to her hips. "Well, it's not like we don't have time. Why not?"

Her statement was met with his baffled expression. "What, now?"

"Sure."

"Right now?"

"Yep."

"Feh." Inuyasha scratched his ear. "Well, I guess. This is weird...do you even know how to throw a decent punch?"

The only punches she had ever thrown were in mock anger at her younger brother Souta. "Umm... maybe?"

Inuyasha got his footing, and stretched out his arm, with his palm facing Kagome. "Well, show me what you've got."

_He wants me to punch him? No way! _"Umm…"

"Do it."

"Fine." She blew the air out of her cheeks, and concentrated. It was just a punch, not the end of the world. Besides, she had just asked for this, hadn't she? Making a fist, she pulled her arm back and threw a punch at Inuyasha's hand as hard as she could. "Hah!"

Her hand hit his palm and the hanyou didn't even so much as blink.

Kagome looked up to see Inuyasha grinning, quite amused. _Damn. He can't blame a girl for trying, I guess._

Inuyasha shook his head as his fingers slowly curled around Kagome's fist. _She wants me to teach her how to fight. Just when I think the girl's all out of surprises. Hell, I probably should have expected this. _He flipped her fist over and pointed at her fingers. "Well, first of all, you're making a fist wrong. Never tuck your thumb under your other fingers, it'll get broken that way. Instead, tuck it to the side. Next, when you actually throw the punch, put your whole body into it, not just your arm. Maybe then you'll be able to take on a bunny youkai."

"Shut up."

Inuyasha laughed and continued instructing the girl. A few hours passed, and in the moonlight the shard hunters practiced until Inuyasha was satisfied with Kagome's class A punching ability. As it was getting late, and Kagome was obviously tired, the duo made their way back to the village.

Inuyasha ducked under a low branch and shot a glance at Kagome. "If you don't mind me asking, what brought all this on?"

The girl was silent for a few moments, and ripped a leaf off a near branch to toy with. "Nothing in particular really, I'm just tired of holding everyone back. I know you can't always give your full attention to a battle because you're watching out for me. I don't want to be a liability, I want to help."

"You know I'll always protect you, Kagome."

Kagome sighed, and stopped walking. "I know Inuyasha. I just… I need to be able to do something on my own, you know? Live up to this whole 'miko' thing. I can barely use my powers as it is. I want to be able to do as much as the rest of you."

Inuyasha looked up through the trees into the night sky. He knew all about wanting to be better, to make others respect him for his strength. Who knew that little Kagome felt the same way? "I understand Kagome." He shot the girl a mischievous grin. "I'll make you the best damn fighter out there. Second only to myself, of course."

Kagome grinned back. "Naturally."

"Race you back to the village?"

"What? There's no way I could-" but Inuyasha had already taken off. Swearing under her breath, Kagome took off laughing after the boy.

End chapter 1.

So, there's that. I'm taking a break from LSDL. I needed something new, and this has been in my head forever. So! Inuyasha teaches Kagome how to fight. But how good will she get? I mean, there's not all that much she can do as a **human**, right? whistles innocently I gave away nothing. Not a thing, you hear! You lovely people that read author notes deserve some inside info sometimes, muwahaha. All feedback is encouraged and supplied (aka: bribed) with love and cookies. Now get out of here, you crazy readers and reviewers.


End file.
